The Croats are working as contractors for the Italian oil company ENI at an oil and gas well in southern Libya, about 2,000 kilometres from Tripoli, and there are about 70 workers from around the world at that location. Four days ago the workers asked ENI to be evacuated.

The Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration has set up a crisis management centre for the evacuation of Croatian citizens from Libya and is seeking the safest way of evacuating all those who want to leave the country, ministry spokesman Mario Dragun told press. He added that the ministry was in contact with Crosco.

According to Dragun, by Sunday only the workers of the Montmontaza construction company had requested evacuation from Libya. The airport at Benghazi is closed, and Croatia has an airplane ready to evacuate the workers who are en route to Tripoli in the course of the day. About 400 Croatians are estimated to be working in Libya.

The ministry said it was ready to organise the evacuation of all Croatian citizens from Libya.

The Croatian workers said that the situation in their area was calm, but expressed fear that the nearest airport at Kufra, near the border with Chad, might be closed if anti-government protests continued to spread across the country. They said they had food to last them for at least a week.